Mississauga school group captures top marks at FIRST

Last week, students from around the world traveled to St. Louis MI, putting their innovation skills to the test at the annual FIRST Championship presented by Qualcomm Inc., held at various venues throughout the city. 

The four-day event, attended by more than 30,000 people, came down to a heart-pounding conclusion in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans when four teams from around the USA, earned the FIRST Robotics Competition awards. More than 83,000 students on 3,336 teams from 25 countries competed during the 2017 season, including many Canadian-based teams.

Among the big winners from Canada included Team 1325 Inverse Paradox, a robotics team located at Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School in Mississauga ON. The team, lead by Tanreet Dhaliwal, was named the 2017 FIRST Championship Winners – Dean’s List Award. The Gordon Graydon-based team consisted of 55 high school students from grades 9 to 12, worked together to build a 120-pound industrial strength robot, while maintaining a strong outreach promotion in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects within our community.

Team 1325 Inverse Paradox, a robotics team located at Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School in Mississauga ON., was led by Tanreet Dhaliwal.

Other FIRST Robotics Competition Awards captured by Canadians at the event include:

Curie Subdivision

* Team 2056, OP Robotics, Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada

* Team 1241, THEORY6, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Tesla Subdivision

* Team 3683, Team Dave, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Subdivision Finalists – Archimedes Subdivision

* Team 865, WARP7, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Curie Subdivision

* Team 4917, Sir Lancerbot, Elmira, Ontario, Canada

* Team 4946, The Alpha Dogs, Bolton, Ontario, Canada

Daly Subdivision

* Team 4976, Rebels, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada

* Team 4678, CyberCavs, Breslau, Ontario, Canada

Darwin Subdivision

* Team 1114, Simbotics, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

* Team 610, Crescent Robotics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

* Team 6387, Discobots Canada, Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox –

* Carson-Tesla Division: Team 3683, Team Dave, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers –

* Curie-Darwin Division: Team 1305, Ice Cubed, North Bay, Ontario, Canada

Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi –

* Curie-Darwin Division: Team 4946, The Alpha Dogs, Bolton, Ontario, Canada

Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen –

* Archimedes-Daly Division: Team 1075, Sprockets, Whitby, Ontario, Canada

Highest Rookie Seed –

* Darwin Subdivision: Team 6331, Sabotage, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Rookie All-star Award –

* Curie-Darwin Division: Team 6331, Sabotage, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Judges’ Awards –

* Curie-Darwin Division: Team 5885, Villanova WiredCats, LaSalle, Ontario, Canada